Weaning off oil, Scottish islands eye renewable future

February 19, 2017 by Mark Mclaughlin

A "Welcome to Lerwick" sign in the Shetlands, which is using its strong winds and stormy seas to turn the islands into a European renewable energy giant

Strong winds and stormy seas have helped turn the Shetland Islands in the North Atlantic into a European renewable energy giant, producing more power than it knows what to do with.

The tidal power underwater turbines that were completed last month are only the latest green energy project for an archipelago that has been reliant for decades on the North Sea offshore industry.

Even homeowners are getting in on the act with small wind turbines in their gardens and solar panels on their roofs—somewhat optimistically in an area where winter daylight lasts just six hours.

"We're not 100 percent self sufficient but we're quite a long way towards it," Jim Dickson, 69, told AFP at his home in the windswept village of Brae, referring to electricity generation for his own house.

Dickson, who lives near the Sullom Voe oil terminal, can power the building and an electric powered Nissan Leaf car from a turbine in his garden with enough left over to feed into the island's grid when conditions are favourable.

"What I make from the government for producing per kilowatt hour more than pays for what I buy from the grid, so effectively there is no power bill."

The former harbour master knows about the dangers of fossil fuels.

He was winched aboard the out of control oil tanker MV Braer in 1993 during the worst cyclone on record in the North Atlantic, in an ill-fated attempt to prevent it running aground.

His efforts to attach a tow rope failed and the ship crashed into the rocks at Quendale Bay, spilling 84,700 tonnes of crude oil into the sea.

The nation was aghast at images of Shetland's famous seabirds drowning in black ooze.

Around 10 percent of the Shetland Islands' electricity is generated from renewables and wind and tidal generators are only licenced to produce up to that limit
Harnessing the sea

The oil industry in Shetland began in the 1970s with the development of the North Sea fields.

The Brent field east of the archipelago became an emblem of the industry, with "Brent Crude" becoming a benchmark for oil trading around the world.

Oil giant Shell has announced plans to decommission the field but new discoveries west of Shetland could give a boost to the industry.

French energy firm Total has invested £3.5 billion (4.1 billion euros, $4.4 billion) in a new gas plant near Sullom Voe that opened last year to extract gas from its fields west of Shetland, Laggan and Tormore.

"Producing gas and oil from the west of Shetland basin is very, very challenging," field operations manager Simon Hare told AFP on a hill overlooking the plant, a sprawling development which stands in sharp contrast to the rest of the islands' natural beauty.

The gas plant is designed for a lifetime of 30 years.

But environmentalists are pinning their hopes on another energy asset under the waters around Shetland.

"In tidal, we're very fortunate in Scotland," said Patrick Ross-Smith, Shetland development officer at Nova Innovation, which has installed three 100 Kilowatt turbines in the Bluemull Sound.

Scotland has 24 percent of Europe's entire marine energy potential because of its powerful tides.

A gas flare burns at the Shetland Gas Plant
"It's great to harness some of that in Shetland," he said.

The turbines' success has had the odd effect of creating too much power.

"The Shetland grid is itself constrained now. It cannot take any more renewables," he said.

Around 10 percent of the islands' electricity is generated from renewables and wind and tidal generators are only licenced to produce up to that limit.

There is no connecting cable between Shetland and mainland Britain and as the renewable energy cannot easily be stored to ensure stable supply, the turbines have to be switched off from time to time.

The proposal for a connector line to link Shetland to the mainland 200 miles (322 kilometres) away remains uncertain.

For Dickson, the more renewables the better.

"You will always need hydrocarbons to power your jumbo jet, for example, but you shouldn't be making electricity with hydrocarbons," he said.

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53 comments

We are getting there, faster than most folk realize. Our neighborhood produces its own power with five of our houses having PV, powering the neighborhood and beyond. Ours runs the meter backwards as we pump power into the grid, then we take it out at night.

The system powers our house fully, and the EV, too, an e-Golf. The PV system cost just over $12k and saves us over $3k/year so far, and since gasoline and power are going up, it has a better value every year.

Wooowa @gkam. You do e-Golf? Me too! My home systems is an Optishot2 built in my garage with a nice projection system. I really recommend it if you have a 10x10x10 space you can claim as your own and have a love for golf. I need a new Car and next one will be self driving EV. My PV system should be 5000W once it's all installed.

" . . because some smug green enviros want to pretend that they're saving the earth. In the meantime, they drive up the cost to everyone with their smugness."--------------------

Nope, "Facts", I actually LOWERED the cost of power for others. I think you folk talk together without knowing what you are dealing with, since you have no experience in it.

My system pays off in four+ years, then gives me free power and auto fuel for decades. You can whine about whether the power I produce and send into the grid is the same power I take out at night, but that is the way it works.

I save money for both my family and my society. Why don't you get with reality?

Nope, that is what you want desperately to believe, but your ignorance has trapped you again. Send me an email address and I'll send pictures. Solar energy now pays for itself rather nicely. Better than nukes, better than fossil fuels, better than what you use.

In three more years, the system will have paid for itself, and we will have free power and auto fuel for decades, while you still pull up to the pump and the tune-up rack, and for oil changes and emissions tests.

Solar energy now pays for itself rather nicely....free power and auto fuel for decades...

gskam, please, help Greenpeace with your technological technology of converting greenies' fibs into perpetual motion in order to propel their ship and motorboats. They are crossing all oceans with no windmill generators, no solar panels, no whale oil; they are polluting the oceans with their diesel-burning ship and motorboats.http://wpmedia.ne...1808.jpghttps://pbs.twimg...2JT7.jpg

I guess if you have no rational response, you can always resort to silliness.

The fact is, I was very surprised our system provided so much. I expected it to cover 90% of the household use, but it provides 100%, plus all the energy for the EV, too. It is probably because we use less power than our neighbors, and they based the estimate on general usage.

We expected it to take 15-17 years for payback, and found the car cut that in half, and our low usage meant it covers the entirety of our electric power use.

The point is, it is now not just practical, but beneficial, and installing these technologies can save you money, not just clean up your act.

I guess if you have no rational response, you can always resort to silliness.

The fact is, I was very surprised our system provided so much. I expected it to cover 90% of the household use, but it provides 100%, plus all the energy for the EV, too. It is probably because we use less power than our neighbors, and they based the estimate on general usage.

We expected it to take 15-17 years for payback, and found the car cut that in half, and our low usage meant it covers the entirety of our electric power use

Can you imagine someone who goes through his entire life lying like this?

And how can he ignore the 12-14 jobs he lost because of it??

"He does bizarre and self-destructive things because consequences that would fill the ordinary man with shame, self-loathing, and embarrassment simply do not affect the psychopath at all. What to others would be a disaster is to him merely a fleeting inconvenience."

I guess if you have no rational response, you can always resort to silliness.

The fact is, I was very surprised our system provided so much. I expected it to cover 90% of the household use, but it provides 100%, plus all the energy for the EV, too. It is probably because we use less power than our neighbors, and they based the estimate on general usage.

We expected it to take 15-17 years for payback, and found the car cut that in half, and our low usage meant it covers the entirety of our electric power use

Can you imagine someone who goes through his entire life lying like this?

And how can he ignore the 12-14 jobs he lost because of it??....

Ghost, you're being a creepy stalker on the internet again!

Stop it.

Pause to look at your own motives/character, which comes across as lying and obsessive. Any objective reader here can see its you 'projecting' your own 'character/motives' onto gkam. You can be better than this. Be so; soon. :)

No it doesn't. The utilities are being forced to give you retail rate power for free in exchange for solar PV, through net metering laws. That alone makes the power cost in excess of $110/MWh which is stupendously expensive for non-load-following capacity. Then the tax rebates and investment subsidies add an average of $235/MWh which makes the society and the people around you pay $300-400/MWh (30-40 c/kWh), and for what?

Put simply, other people are being forced to pay you to use electricity, which costs them many times the worth of the electricity you're getting, and the difference goes to whomever sold the gear - it's crony capitalism and legalized fraud.

Where you see income, other people see money circling down the drain, or to China as that's where the solar panels come from.

I'll remind you again, gkam - when a grid utility buys power from independent producers, the typical prices for bulk power go aroung 6 c/kWh. Then it adds the upkeep and operation of its grid which is on the order of 6 cents/kWh again, and sells the power to retail customers at say 14 c/kWh for +2 c profit.

Now, net metering is forcing them to transmit every kWh you produce out through the grid, and then give you a free kWh in return later, that means every kWh you produce costs them 6 cents to transmit out, and then 12 cents to return back to you. That arrangement saves you the 14 cents retail price, which you count as profit, but costs the utility 18 cents. The utility makes 14 cents by selling the power to someone else, which makes your power worth -4 cents for the grid utility in this example.

So how does the grid utility solve the loss? Simple - it jacks the prices up for all customers until it makes the difference. Your free power costs others more.

Is that how you think it works? No wonder we argue. The power I produce does not go into the grid, it goes to my neighbors. It is free to the utility. My peak power sells at about 41 Cents, not 14. The power company loves it.

The power company is using the power from my house instead of the stuff they would have to produce with fuels. No fuel, no emissions, no increase in cost.

"you put energy into the grid, which CA (and FED) law requires payment at wholesale rates"-----------------------------No, it does not. Those of you on the outside do not understand how the system works.

Looking for some way to criticize others often leads to simple errors from simplistic understanding. Give up on "getting even" with me for being real, while you are still just another anonymous internet sniper. You have my service records and other stuff in your dossier on me, like the typical stalker. Read them and weep.

Meanwhile I will continue to provide my own power for house and car. That 22% ROI looks pretty good right now.

The Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act of 1978 (PURPA) requires power providers to purchase excess power from grid-connected small renewable energy systems at a rate equal to what it costs the power provider to produce the power itself.

whom to believe?ah... right... the non-engineer has "experience" and thus the IEEE and PEL engineers who helped adapt federal law and wrote the regs for connecting to the grid with PV's are stupidLOL

Those of you on the outside do not understand how the system works

except that i have solar power and i've proven as muchmoreover, i am quoting PURPA and linked your own PG&E, which abides by CA and FED law

both state you are wrong and yet you continue to post that it is everyone else who doesn't understand?

perhaps you should write your PG&E or Congress?tell them all about it...

The power I produce does not go into the grid, it goes to my neighbors.

Via the utility's grid. You're not isolated from the grid - inserting your PV into the local branch shows up upstream as a reduction in demand through the entire grid. The effect for one house is small, but multiple homes with PV will sway the whole thing and that causes costs to the utility and to the independent power producers who have to ramp their outputs up and down.

It is free to the utility.

No it isn't. They are forced to trade power for power, and obtaining and delivering that power to you costs them money.

My peak power sells at about 41 Cents, not 14.

Not when the sun shines. We've been through this two dozen times already: there's enough solar PV in your area that the utilities are in trouble trying to figure out where to put it, and that makes the prices go down and shifts the peak to the evening.

" i am quoting PURPA and linked your own PG&E, which abides by CA and FED law"---------------------------------------------You need a Power Purchase Agreement to do that. My system is not controlled by that part of the law.

Maybe you could look into how the system works before blabbering unintelligently.

"you put energy into the grid, which CA (and FED) law requires payment at wholesale rates"-----------------------------No, it does not. Those of you on the outside do not understand how the system works.

Looking for some way to criticize others often leads to simple errors from simplistic understanding. Give up on "getting even" with me for being real, while you are still just another anonymous internet sniper. You have my service records and other stuff in your

Instead of whining about how mistreated he makes you feel. Why you don't provide some links that counter the ones he post up, eh? If he is so wrong because he outside, and you are so inside, why you can't find the good stuffs?

glam-Skippy: "some blah about something".goober: "well here are some links to sources that say you are wrong"glam-Skippy: "outsiders are mad because I bested them"goober: "how are my sources wrong"glam-Skippy: "I am real".goober: "glam-Skippy you are the moron"

You folk are really something, with emotions making you look like fools, like Trump himself.

I gave you the information on my system, but you cannot let anyone best you, so you scream against me.

My system puts power into the distribution circuit on my street,and the neighbors use it, as my meter runs backward. At night, we take most of it our, turning the meter forward. At the end of the year, we broke even, having produced all the electricity used by the house and EV.

It cost $12,600 for the PV system, and saves us $3000 per year so far. As gasoline and electricity go up, the savings will be higher. It was great investment.

When we sell the house, It will come with free power and auto fuel, which may just increase its value a little.

also see Eikka's link, or just re-read your own PG&E links that i posted aboveit aint rocket surgery - and you look pretty stupid arguing the point considering your own power co is saying something contrary to your proclamations

My system puts power into the distribution circuit on my street,and the neighbors use it, as my meter runs backward. At night, we take most of it our, turning the meter forward.

So during the day, when the power prices are low thanks to so many people owning solar panels, you push power into the grid, which the utility values at 2-3 cents/kWh because there's more supply than demand.

Then come evening you take fossil-fuel generated prime-rate power back from the grid for the full amount, which the power utility values up to 41 c/kWh as per your own admission, because so many people are doing what you are doing and there's more demand than supply and they have to scrape the bottom of the proverbial barrel to produce it.

But you don't pay for it, because you roll the meter back the next day so you get it for free.

"which the utility values at 2-3 cents/kWh because there's more supply than demand."

Nope. The power goes next door, on the same small distribution circuit on our one-block street. It sells for 41 cents depending on the time of day. We do not produce for them when the power is cheap, an artifact of the system.

We do NOT have more power than demand. If we did, they could not sell it for 41 cents. Their rates are set by the Commissions, not the company.

It cost $12,600 for the PV system, and saves us $3000 per year so far. As gasoline and electricity go up, the savings will be higher. It was great investment.

Of course it was - it's one of the few legal ways to force other people to give you free money, or in this case, pay your electric bill.

You've even said you installed a gas powered instant water heater. Why don't you use your own solar power to heat your water? Oh, that's right, because it's worth more money to you as offsets than actually using it for clean energy.

Nope. The power goes next door

That's not how the power grid works.

We do NOT have more power than demand. If we did, they could not sell it for 41 cents.

Spot prices and retail prices are not the same thing. You pay the retail rate, which is based on the estimated cost of production and transmission, while the utility pays spot prices that are the instant system prices that depend on the supply & demand situation.

We do not produce for them when the power is cheap, an artifact of the system.

Yes you do. You're still lying your ass off. The panels are connected to the grid and producing any time they can regardless of the price because the utility is simply forced to take it.

There's no system in place to cut the panels offline when the power prices slump unless you yourself are watching the prices and turning the switch manually, which is what people don't do because every kWh they put out is a free kWh they can take back.

If private solar PV owners were paid spot prices for their electricity, within a year the people would be ripping the panels off their roofs and selling them to cut their losses.

Why? Because every solar panel competes with every other solar panel on the market, and they all turn on at the same time with the sun, so on the best most productive days when you'd make the most power to sell - everyone's selling - and the prices crash down till nobody's making a profit.

That's why using the grid as your battery doesn't work - unless you force other people to pay the difference by law.

"If private solar PV owners were paid spot prices for their electricity, within a year the people would be ripping the panels off their roofs and selling them to cut their losses."----------------------------------------Stop making up silly and ridiculous situations. Some PV systems do exactly that, sell power back at retail rates. I do not. Got that? I sell nothing. I cannot get money for my power, I can only offset what I use. If I overproduce, it goes into the distribution line right at the point of use. It even stays on the low-voltage side of the transformer here, since we do not produce enough to cover the entire neighborhood. That means it does not even use the distribution circuits, and never leaves my street.

Nobody pays more for my use, in fact I produce when it is needed, and take it back when the lines are relatively unloaded and the most efficient generation is used. The utility benefits, their customers benefit, and I benefit.

and that is as high as it is only because of the sock help mysteriously being donated to specific accountsLOL

Hasn't Stumpy learned anything from his record of being caught out re negligence when it came to doing due diligence in gathering/properly reporting ALL the facts before posting his half-truths and lies?

Stumpy has done it again above.

Any objective observer here would know my rating has been 1.7 FOR A LONG TIME BEFORE the recent upvotes (by whomever).....which recent upvotes have NOT changed that longstanding 1.7 rating (which was only that because of the longstanding bot-voting by Ira, Stumpy et al 'gang' which has been abusing/skewing the feedback page rating system for intimidation/sabotage tactic against me; despite mainstream science increasingly confirming me correct, and that 'gang' wrong all along!).

And everyone knows I do NOT vote in feedback pages/run sock armies. Check with PO admin.

As you will observe (if you go to the feedback page for gkam and RealityCheck), the "tooty" and "Uncle Ira" bot-voting usernames are at it still skewing the rating system. And you will further observe that the Stumpy et al 'sidekicks' to those bot-voting ignoramuses prefer to lie down with AGW deniers rather than admit gkam's correct information and vote accordingly instead of as a personal feud tactic irrespective of the actual facts presented.

The 'racket' is obvious to objective observers: the Uncle Ira, tooty and sidekick gang are STILL pretending they are anything other than internet ignoramus trolls who are totally trashing good science/humanity and site ethics; interested only in 'winning' against those calling them out on their 'racket'.

This is what happens when members cowtow to/enable idiots/ignoramuses so as to get higher ratings from that Extortion Racket gang. Ego, weak character, leads them to bring shame on all true science/scientists. Shame!

Hi Ira. :) Keeping to the same vein of humor you just introduced via this exchange:

This is what happens when members cowtow to/enable idiots/ignoramuses so as to get higher ratings from that Extortion Racket gang.

Cher, I don't know how you do things in Australia. But we don't tow cows here. The barges are not set up for them. We are not trained to take care of them. But we do tow cow feed and grains sometime.

I will just as humorously point out that whenever you and tooty and Stumpy trolls/bot-voting sh*t-heads are on those barges, they are effectively 'crap towing barges' for the duration of the trip. :)

PS: If you can't take it, don't dish it out, hey mate? Or do you admit to being a sh*t-head, and so confirm my jesting observation as a longstanding demonstrable fact? Either way, Ira, your Cajun Clown act has turned sour because you have no clue that true science is no 'joke'. Trump followers/AGW deniers are trying to make it so, don't join them. :)

Cher you must be confusing me with some other couyon. I can take all you got, I can all everybody got at the same time. So matey-Skippy, what you got for me, huh?

Or do you admit to being a sh*t-head, and so confirm my jesting observation as a longstanding demonstrable fact?

You think that is supposed to get all prickly like you are and wish I was? Non Cher, you just don't have it. And I don't care what you confirm, you been "confirming" here for years and all it gets is peoples having fun at you.

true science is no 'joke'

Well then Cher, maybe you should go out and do some "true science" instead of wasting all your time here playing scientist, go do some diligence. You can't win your Nobel Prize or change world with new toes with the new maths here. {Not that you have ever tried to put out any toes or maths here old or new. Non Cher gobbledygook don't count.)

And I don't care what you confirm, you been "confirming" here for years and all it gets is peoples having fun at you.

Two things the forum will note well from your above Cajun Clown babbling, Ira:

1) You don't care for confirmation of fact, only your own troll/bot-voter lies and jokes.

2) The "peoples" you refer to are the same Ira-preferred trolls/losers who fell hook, line and sinker for that Bicep2 crap; and the rest, ie, "peoples" belonging/acting as gangs of bot-voting ignoramus and trolls....like you, Ira.

3) Your "peoples" opinions aren't worth squat.

Now, as for this:

How you like me now Skippy?

In science, Ira, it's not about like/dislike, it's about facts and conclusions based on those facts confirmed correct. Since science mainstream is recently confirming me correct all along on many fronts, the 'joke' is on you and your Ira-preferred 'skippys' who have been confirmed by mainstream to be wrong all along. Lose the Cajun Clown act, Ira. :)

Well for somebody that don't have any telescope, or any satellites, or laboratory, or science schooling, or science research, or science publications (gobbledygook on physorg and the Playhouse don't count), or even other scientists to work with,,, you sure do get a lot "confirming" done. All you got is the Physorg, and you probably have to pay for that. One day maybe you will be able to get just one thing "confirmed" by somebody other than Really-Skippy.

those facts confirmed correct

Oh, I see. Like you mean when Really-Skippy has confirmed serious mental conditions? Okay, I will agree you got that one confirmed.

Well for somebody that don't have any telescope, or any satellites, or laboratory, or science schooling, or science research, or science publications (gobbledygook on physorg and the Playhouse don't count), or even other scientists to work with,,, you sure do get a lot "confirming" done. All you got is the Physorg, and you probably have to pay for that. One day maybe you will be able to get just one thing "confirmed" by somebody other than Really-Skippy.

those facts confirmed correct

Oh, I see. Like you mean when Really-Skippy has confirmed serious mental conditions? Okay, I will agree you got that one confirmed.

We pay for that astronomy work to be done. Theorists then make hypotheses/interpretations based on same. Confirmation comes when further observations/analysis supports the hypotheses/interpretations. Recent mainstream discovery/review confirms mine were correct all along. Meanwhile you/your preferred skippys/trolls are left NOT "seeing" at all. :)

When bot-voting ignoramuses and trolls begin to 'project' their own "mental conditions" on those who stick to science, it demonstrates and further confirms for the intelligent observer just how self-deluded such bot-voting ignoramuses and trolls can become once they have been allowed an internet connection! Pitiful, Ira. Snap out of it, mate! :)

There are a whole lot of people on the physorg that read (some of time) the articles and then promote them self to "Theorist". It is easier than actually wasting all that time going to schools and getting experience in the field and getting your hands dirty.

Physorg also provides a program to promote your self to "Engineer" without having to bother with all that schooling and goofy stuffs. Maybe you should try their "I'm An Engineer Program", you haven't got a lot of success with the "I'm A Theorist Program".

I don't pay PO. But you must be, because they allow your bot-voting and making a joke of science methods/ethics. Or did you threaten to uneash a worse bot on PO.

Theorists then make hypotheses/interpretations based on same.

There are a whole lot of people on the physorg that read (some of time) the articles and then promote them self to "Theorist". But I am the one being confirmed correct all along by recent mainstream science discovery/review. Big difference, Ira.

Physorg also provides a program to promote your self to "Engineer" without having to bother with all that schooling and goofy stuffs.

I work and have developed my approach/knowledge base using real science principles and methodologies. Why resort to lesser 'programs'?

Is "confirming" the only skill you got Cher?

Sooner that, than your 'bot-idiocy' skill, Ira. :)

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